No cash for fight to halt child abuse

THE Premier, Morris Iemma, and the Treasurer, Michael Costa,
have refused to provide new funding to tackle an epidemic of child
sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities, ignoring the pleas of three
ministers and the taskforce that identified the crisis.

Almost a year after receiving a report from an expert panel
warning that abuse in Aboriginal communities was four times the
average, the State Government has responded with a "five-year plan"
containing 88 recommendations - but no extra funding to implement
them.

The Federal Government, the State Opposition and taskforce
members have expressed dismay at the Government's response.

The Herald understands Mr Costa blocked any new funding
despite representations by the Attorney-General, Bob Debus, the
Community Services Minister, Reba Meagher, and the Health Minister,
John Hatzistergos.

The acting federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister, John Cobb,
yesterday called on Mr Iemma to override Mr Costa and fund the
recommended programs.

The state ministers are believed to have sought funding of
between $20 million and $40 million a year. The Opposition has
compared the request with $25 million the Government recently gave
to the Lane Cove Tunnel company to compensate it for delaying road
closures until after the March election.

Professor Chris Cunneen, from the University of NSW and a member
of the taskforce, yesterday likened the lack of new funding to an
inadequate response by governments in the early 1990s to the royal
commission on Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Because of the lack of new funding, the Herald
understands, the Government has scrapped a recommendation that a
special case worker, dealing with child sexual assault, be provided
to each Aboriginal community.

"The issue of funding is very important because it will require
agencies to find funds to do this out of their existing budgets,"
Professor Cunneen said.

"While the Government can say it's funding the recommendations,
we don't really know how they're doing that if there's no clear
allocation of resources."

The Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, said the Government had
released its response during the holiday season because it was
"woefully inadequate".

Professor Cunneen feared the response to the report -
Breaking the Silence: Creating the Future, which the
Government received in February but did not release for four months
- would be "buried" in the lead-up to the state election.

The taskforce's chairwoman, Marcia Ella-Duncan, warned last
month a decision not to fund the programs would be inhumane.

A Government source said the lack of funds was disastrous:
"They've been sitting on this for ages. There was a lot of work in
preparing budget proposals with an understanding this was a major
thing the Government wanted to address.

"Treasury said they had no money ... [and] the next day put $25
million in for the tunnel in Lane Cove. There's a big opportunity
to tackle a major problem and they have just missed it. It means we
can't do as much as quickly."

The report found there existed a culture of "silence, denial and
inappropriate responses such as protecting the perpetrator".

The Government's response said it would boost surveillance and
evidence-gathering efforts by police for pedophile cases. It also
promised alternative accommodation for Aboriginal people granted
bail and to "encourage" police prosecutors to place more
restrictions on bail for offenders.

A spokesman for Mr Iemma, Ben Wilson, said the Government was
boosting spending in the Department of Community Services, which
would benefit Aboriginal communities and stop abuse. He said the
report had found ways to better employ existing resources.